Trooper Veterinary Hospital celebrates golden anniversary

We wanted to share the great article below that appeared in the Times Herlad!! Thnak you Brendan Wills! The only thing that we want to add is that we do not have any veterinarians who live at our facility. Our veterinary assistants reside here and provide care in the evenings and on weekends and holidays to our hospitalized patients and our lodgers. We are not a 24-hour hospital, and when our office is closed, we refer patients to Metropolitian Veterinary Emergency Services.

LOWER PROVIDENCE — Trooper Veterinary Hospital celebrated its 50th Anniversary on Sunday and community members flocked to the party filled with music, popcorn, guided tours and a K-9 demonstration by the Lower Providence Police Department.

The Trooper Veterinary Hospital was started in 1963 by Dr. Max Herman, who bought the Holden Veterinary Clinic at the intersection of Main Street and Park Avenue. The hospital originally served large and small animals, but quickly switched to concentrating only on small animals.

Herman retired from the hospital in 1993 but did not give up his passion for helping animals. In 1998, he became the 49th veterinarian to be board certified in Animal Dentistry.

In 2004, Trooper Veterinary Hospital opened the new facility at the current location, directly behind the old location, which is now a Walgreens.

Herman designed the facility’s state-of-the-art dental suite. He was then asked to help design other locations’ dental suites. Max passed away on April 24, 2013.

“We are very big on dental care,” said Dr. Michael Herman, who took over the practice after his father’s retirement.

“When an animal is here, we really pride ourselves on giving professional level care comparable to what a human would receive,” said Hospital Administrator Wendy Uba.

The new facility houses state-of-the-art equipment including separate cat and dog wards, a separate ward with independent air systems for potentially contagious pets, ultrasound and x-ray equipment, a surgical suite, and pharmacy. The staff includes five veterinarians and 37 staff members with two veterinarians actually living in apartments above the hospital to ensure care is readily available for any critically endangered animals.

At the 50th Anniversary Celebration, Trooper Veterinary Hospital offered guided tours to the community. Surgical tables and screening rooms were staged with stuffed animals performing mock surgeries and examinations and children were shown the animals’ segregated waiting rooms that “keep the dogs from being scared of the cats,” according to Uba.

Throughout the tour, tables and desks were filled with fall-themed decorations, food and refreshments and outside, a carnival tent was set up with music, popcorn, prizes and pets.

Tables were filled with various partners and sponsors, including Canine Partners for Life, a non-profit organization that trains service dogs for individuals with physical or cognitive disabilities, which brought two service dogs named Turks and Debbie to demonstrate their abilities, impressing children by picking up various odds and ends at the command of volunteer Buck Bullen.

The Montgomery County SPCA’s table displayed Diesel, a human- and photo-friendly Chihuahua, and two shy guinea pigs, Pip and Cupcake. The VTH staff gave out cotton candy and allowed children to pet the many kittens available in playpens.

The highlight of the day was given by the Lower Providence Police Department in the yard behind the hospital where Corporal Matt Kuhnert and his K-9 partner, Shadow, gave a demonstration of how dogs are used by the police.

Kuhnert showed the crowd Shadow’s obedience and explained his training, “It’s almost like a game. He knows if he does a good job, he’ll get a treat.”

Then Kuhnert and Shadow demonstrated passive and active apprehensions on a live but fully-padded assailant before Shadow identified where drugs were stored in a mini-van.